KINGSTON, R.I. 鈥� Nov. 17, 2025 鈥� Over the past three years, has been seeking to better understand the relationship between children who often care for themselves and public libraries within certain communities.
In that time, Kociubuk鈥攁n assistant professor within the 溏心vlog免费B站 鈥攆ound that libraries, while vital for all people to seek information and knowledge, sometimes have tensions with the presence of self-care children. That, Kociubuk says, runs counter to the easy access to libraries that support the activities and community resources these unattended children want.
Kociubuk鈥檚 work was noticed by the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), and she was subsequently rewarded for it. Kociubuk received second-place honors in ALISE鈥檚 Jean Tague-Sutcliffe Doctoral Student Research Poster Competition held during the association鈥檚 annual conference Oct. 6-8 in Kansas City, Mo.
鈥淚t’s very validating to be recognized by leaders in the field and for them to view this work as being important,鈥� said Kociubuk, who also was the first 溏心vlog免费B站 faculty member to earn an award in the competition鈥檚 history. 鈥淚 want to take what I learned and help libraries develop processes and policies with their library staff on how to provide better service to this population.鈥�
The competition allowed doctoral students who either completed or are nearing completion of their dissertations to design informational posters showcasing their work, including data analysis and results. Along with the posters themselves being judged by a panel, competitors also had to offer oral presentations on their projects.
In her work, Kociubuk鈥攁n 2025-26 ALISE Emerging Scholar鈥攁nalyzed policies from libraries across the United States. She also conducted ethnographic observations鈥攕tudying cultural behaviors and social structures鈥攁nd focus groups with children to understand from a child鈥檚 viewpoint what鈥檚 occurring in these libraries and how these policies impact youth socialization. Her study was funded by University of Wisconsin-Madison鈥檚 School of Information.
Kociubuk found that libraries are often one of the few safe spaces where self-care children can hang out after school without much adult oversight. She also noted many discrepancies in how libraries enforce rules with self-care children, and what specific rules were laid out. In some cases, library discipline practices correlated with race-related identity markers, where Black teenage boys were punished more harshly or more quickly than other groups of children, she says.
鈥淲hen you go into a library, no one sets you down and tells you that these are the rules of the space. So, what happens is these children are in the spaces and they’re kind of left to figure out the rules by getting disciplined,鈥� Kociubuk said. 鈥淭hey break the rule, and then they learn about the rule, or they watch someone else break a rule and then they learn about the rule that way. It becomes this cat-and-mouse game where children aren’t always quite sure how they should be acting in the library space until they’re punished.鈥�
Kociubuk found that public libraries can become more child-centered by creating better community spaces for these children. She also says children pay attention to librarians in that setting, which is critical toward developing trusting relationships with adults, but they don鈥檛 always get that attention in return.
鈥淟ibrary staff can build more positive relationships with children by investing and spending time with them, even learning their names, because that was something that I observed that didn’t always happen,鈥� Kociubuk said. 鈥淚t’s really important for children’s development that they have community adults they can trust and have positive relationships with.鈥�
Kociubuk is working on a book chapter on her ethnographic observations for this work that will be published next year. She is also working with libraries across the US looking to improve their behavioral policies regarding unattended children.